Commentary: A sinking that wouldn’t stay a secret

Robert Underbrink

Published 4:15 am, Wednesday, May 31, 2017

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Commentary: A sinking that wouldn’t stay a secret

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At 11 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 3, 1939, crewmen aboard the submarine U-30 — cruising west of Ireland — learned by radio that England had declared war upon Germany. Shortly thereafter, Germany responded with a similar declaration of war.

It was the beginning of World War II.

As night was coming on, Kapitanlieutnant Fritz-Julius Lemp spotted the British liner Athenia, jammed with 1,418 passengers, including many Americans, en route to Montreal, Canada. Since the ship was blacked out and zig-zagging at high speed, the sub commander made an educated guess that the vessel was an armed merchant cruiser, a converted liner fitted with deck guns, and thus fair game. Lemp fired two torpedoes, one of which blew a gaping hole in the side of the ship.

Under the command of Capt. James Cook, the 13,000-ton Athenia, 500 feet long and 26 feet wide, remained afloat more than 14 hours, until it sank stem first the following morning. Of the 1,418 aboard, 98 passengers and 19 crew members were killed.

Upon identifying the vessel, Lemp realized he’d made a mistake and he purposely failed to make an entry in the submarine’s log. He also swore his crew to secrecy. The following day, Hitler ordered that under no circumstances were attacks to be made on passenger ships.

On Sept. 14, the German submarine sighted the English steamship SS Fanad Head, traveling without escort, carrying general cargo and grain from Montreal to the United Kingdom. Upon being stopped, the 33-man crew and eight passengers abandoned ship in two lifeboats. With a line between the two vessels, crewmen hurriedly searched the freighter for provisions, especially fresh bread.

The transfer of supplies all but finished, Lemp sent over additional crewmen with demolition charges to finish the job.

Suddenly, the approach of hostile aircraft forced Lemp and the crewmen on deck to make an emergency crash dive. Left topside, a lone sailor jumped into the rubber dinghy. Though the submarine was out of sight, the line to the small boat gave enemy pilots a clear indication where the target was hiding.

Realizing the sailor in the dinghy revealed their location, the Germans brought U-30 to the surface, allowing a seaman to open the hatch and cut the offending line before plunging back into the submarine.

After remaining submerged a full two hours, Lemp brought the U-30 back to the surface to rescue the sailor in the dinghy, two British aircrew members and the four Germans left aboard, including seaman Adolph Schmidt, who had been wounded during a strafing attack. Before departing the scene, the Germans set off demolitions, making certain the cargo ship went down.

Later that day, U-30 underwent six hours of depth-charge attacks, one after the other, by a pair of Royal Navy destroyers before giving up. With batteries running low and — more important — no further sound from above, the sub commander decided to take U-30 to the surface.

Upon examining Schmidt, the seaman who had suffered serious injuries, Lemp determined to make for neutral Iceland for medical assistance. The submarine commander cleared the compartment where Schmidt was lying injured. Lemp then asked the seaman to read and sign a “declaration under oath that he would never reveal the happenings of Sept. 3, 1939, to friend or foe; and that he would erase from his memory of all happenings that day.” Because of his injuries, the sailor had difficulty signing the declaration.

Upon arriving at Reykjavik on Sept. 19, the German Consul of Iceland came out in a patrol boat to remove the British pilot and the German seaman. The badly burned pilot died soon after, and it is likely sailor Schmidt would have died had he not received hospital care.

When Schmidt learned about the sinking of the Athenia, he assumed it was his submarine, especially since the captain had made him to sign a declaration of what had happened.

With the consent of the Icelandic government for humanitarian purposes, the severely injured boy, age 22, was hospitalized on the condition he would be interned in Iceland until the end of the war. The landing of the sailor was observed by a number of the town’s people and extensively reported in the local press and on state radio.

The German sailor was arrested, and upon his recovery, was deported to England and subsequently interned in Camp No. 133 in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. Five years later, when the seaman returned to Germany, he was called to provide testimony at the Nuremburg War Crimes Tribunal.

No longer under oath since the war had ended, he confirmed the sinking of the Athenia.